Taste 2021 edition, p.69
Taste: 2021 Edition, page 69
Just when I think I’ve turned over every inch of Nina’s room, something catches my eye. The familiar shade of pink from a scarf I know all too well. Ice coats my veins as I grab the ratty old scarf and bring it to my nose, inhaling.
Katerina.
She was here. But when? A glance at the window only intensifies the churning in my gut. It’s not fully closed, and just outside, a few strands of faded Magenta hair stick to the trellis. She left in a hurry.
Fuck.
My heart slams into my rib cage as I consider what might have happened if she hadn’t. But what’s worse is the fact she may have seen something or heard something. What did Nina tell her? Has she already called the cops?
My brain is firing off questions faster than I can answer them, but the only thing I know for certain is that I need to get the fuck out of here and find her, fast.
“Andrei!” I yell down the stairs. “We need to go. Have you found anything?”
“No,” he grunts.
“I have one more room to clear,” I tell him. “Start looking for some accelerant. Anything you can find.”
He mumbles something I can’t understand as I tear through the von Brandt’s master suite. But my search turns up nothing. There are only two possibilities left. Either the drive is no longer here, or it will go down in flames with the rest of the evidence. There isn’t time for anything else.
“This ought to do it.” Andrei appears with two gas cans he must have found in the garage.
I nod and take one of them. “I’ll handle the upper level. You get downstairs. Make sure to douse William, the drapes, anything that will burn.”
He limps away and does as I request without protest, still nursing his wounds from earlier. Vasily will probably have something to say about me beating his face in, but I’m long past giving a fuck.
I douse the carpet, the beds, and Nina’s body with gasoline. When Andrei shouts that he’s done downstairs, I grab the pack of matches I found in the bathroom and set flame to the beds and the carpet. Downstairs, I repeat the process on William’s body and the other places that Andrei points out. The smoke is already starting to fill the house, and when the fire alarms are triggered, I gesture for Andrei.
On our way out the door, he nearly trips over a muddy pair of shoes. The same shoes I tripped over on my way in. And it isn’t until he looks at them and his brows pinch together that I realize the scarf isn’t the only thing Kat left behind.
“Whose shoes are those?” he asks.
“Probably Nina’s,” I lie.
He shakes his head. “I’ve never seen her wear them. And she hasn’t left the house today, so why would they be muddy?”
The one time I need Andrei to be a dumb fuck, he starts piecing shit together.
“Then they’re Elizabeth’s. Who gives a shit? We need to go.”
“There was a scarf upstairs too.” His brows pinch together. “That drunk chick from the club. She had one just like it.”
“Andrei, we need to get the fuck out of here. The cops are coming,” I bark.
He takes one more long look at the shoes and then bolts out the door. I should be thinking about my exit strategy, potential witnesses, and a million other problems that have just presented themselves, but there’s only one thing on my mind now.
Andrei knows, and I am so fucked.
I told Andrei I would meet him back at the club, and he bought it for now. When I pull up to Kat’s apartment complex, I’m not entirely sure how this will play out. It’s not even dinnertime yet. People are still up, getting home from work and watching TV. It’s not like I can drag her out of here in broad daylight. But I can’t leave her here either.
My fist rattles the door in its frame before Rachel finally pokes her head out through the chain.
“What do you want?” She glares.
“I need to see Kat.”
“She isn’t here,” she hisses.
“Bullshit.”
“Look, asshole. I don’t know who you are—”
I slam my shoulder into the door without warning, and Rachel stumbles back in horror as I enter the apartment and shut the door behind me.
“Don’t scream.” I shake my finger at her when she opens her mouth. “I don’t want to hurt you, but if you make a scene, I’ll tape your fucking mouth shut.”
Her eyes dart to the door. She considers her options, but it doesn’t take her long to accept that she’s trapped.
“Kat isn’t here,” she repeats. “I don’t know what you want, but—”
“Where is she?” I glance down the hall toward her room.
“She bailed.” Rachel glares up at me. “I don’t know what’s going on. She just came home, freaked out, and said she had to leave. She grabbed a bag of clothes, and she was gone. That’s all I know.”
Christ.
I don’t want to believe it, but the empty silence in the apartment only seems to confirm Rachel’s account. If Kat was here, she’d be out in the living room by now, trying to defend her friend. That much I know.
“Show me.” I gesture for Rachel to move, and she hesitates.
“C’mon. I don’t have all fucking day. Show me her room.”
Finally, Rachel staggers down the hall, glancing over her shoulder every couple of feet to check if I’m still here. She doesn’t trust me, and I can’t say that I blame her.
“Satisfied?” She crosses her arms when we reach the end of the hall.
Kat’s room is in complete disarray. Clothes strewn across the bed, her dresser drawers open. She was in a hurry all right, which only manages to confirm what I suspected. She saw something she shouldn’t have, and now she’s in the wind.
“Where did she go?” I pick up one of her sweaters from the floor and toss it onto the bed.
“I’m telling you, I don’t know.” Rachel shakes her head. “She wouldn’t say. She was totally spooked by something, and she just kept telling me she had to go.”
I pinch the bridge of my nose to temper the headache I feel coming on. “Where are your garbage bags?”
“What?” Her eyes narrow.
“Where do you keep the garbage bags?” I repeat.
“In the kitchen.”
“Start folding her clothes,” I order. “Don’t try anything stupid.”
She sits down on the bed with an exasperated sigh and starts folding. I retrieve the garbage bags from the kitchen and return to help her. Kat doesn’t have a lot, but what she does have is in this room. And if I find her, I want to make sure she has the rest of her belongings. But more importantly, I need to know that nobody else will come looking for them here.
“Do you have somewhere else to go?” I ask Rachel as we stuff two bags full of everything Kat left behind.
“What do you mean?” She blinks. “I live here.”
“Not anymore.” I grab a wad of cash from my wallet and toss it onto the bed beside her. “It isn’t safe here for you either. You need to leave. Tonight. Do you understand?”
“What the hell is going on?” She swallows. “What did Kat get herself into?”
“She didn’t do anything wrong,” I answer roughly. “The only mistake she made was meeting me.”
“I knew you were fucking trouble.” Rachel glances around the apartment with a sentimentality I haven’t felt in years. Not since I had a home with my mother.
“Look, I’m going to lay it all out for you.” I tug the handles of the garbage bag shut and tie them together. “You pack your shit and leave. Find another place to live. Stay in a hotel. Do whatever you gotta do. But don’t come back here. Don’t call the cops. Forget you ever knew Kat, and as far as you’re concerned, you never met me. If you follow those simple rules, you get to live. It really is that fucking simple.”
“Who are you?” she whispers.
“I think you know who I am.” I offer her a dark look. “So don’t make me say it.”
“Where the fuck have you been?” Vasily snarls.
“I thought I had a tail.” My jaw flexes as I glance at Andrei, cowering in the corner while he nurses a whiskey. “I drove around the city for a bit to make sure everything was clear.”
Vasily seems to consider my words, nodding when he’s satisfied that I’m telling the truth. “What the fuck happened, Levka?”
“Ask your son.” I glare at Andrei. “He can’t keep his dick in his pants, and he was high as a goddamn kite. He lost his shit, and everything went sideways. There was nothing I could do.”
Vasily growls and begins to pace the length of the room. “And the drive?”
“We couldn’t find it.”
“I don’t like loose ends.” He stares at me with a stony expression. “You know that.”
“Then next time, send me and leave Andrei here to do what he does best.”
Vasily shakes his head. “Enough. I will deal with Andrei. For now, I want you scouring the city. Check everywhere that William von Brandt ever set foot in the door. We need to find that drive.”
I nod my assurances and turn to go, but he stops me. “There is something Andrei said. It concerns me.”
“What is it?” I turn to meet his gaze.
“He mentioned a girl who was at the club. Someone you took home. Andrei seems convinced that she was at the von Brandt’s house. She may have seen something.”
Tension bleeds into my muscles, and I can only hope Vasily hasn’t noticed. “I will take care of her.”
“No more loose ends,” he grunts. “Do you understand, Lev?”
“No loose ends,” I repeat.
“I want proof when it’s done. Something tangible. Don’t forget where your loyalties lie.”
Again, I force myself to nod.
“Nothing comes before blood, Uncle,” I answer solemnly. “I give you my word.”
10
Kat
Four Years Later
Today is the anniversary.
“Mommy?”
I blink, glancing in the rearview mirror, and try to smile. “Yes, baby?”
“Your eyes are shiny.” Josh scrunches up his face. “Are you sad?”
“Oh sweetheart, I’m not sad. See.” I stretch that smile wide.
“You’re beautiful,” he says, the word coming out more like booful, which makes that smile on my face authentic.
“And so are you.”
“Mommy! Boys aren’t beautiful.”
“No, you’re right. You’re handsome.” I turn into the parking lot of the school and drive around the circle of moms dropping off kids for the day. It’s a primary school where I work as a teacher’s aide in the kindergarten class while Josh is looked after in the preschool.
There aren’t many options for single moms, and I feel pretty lucky to have found the school. Josh and I rent a small cabin nearby, and the school is the only one for the three tiny towns that surround ours, so although it’s not big by Philadelphia standards, it’s big enough. Estes Park, which is about an hour away, is the biggest town nearest ours.
Even though the job isn’t the best paying job in the world, there’s no way I’d be able to afford daycare any other way, so for now, this is what works. And it’s on track for what I want to eventually do, which is teach. I’ve already registered to start online classes to continue toward my degree next semester.
I park my Jeep in one of the empty spaces, listening to the engine do its gurgle as I switch it off. It’s going to have to go to the shop soon and before winter sets in, but it’s an expense I just don’t want to think about now.
I turn around in my seat and look at Josh, who’s “‘reading.’” I pluck the book, Good Night, Gorilla, from his hand and give it back right side up.
“We’ll have to return that to the library today.”
“Okay.”
“Do you know what you want to read next?”
“Skippyjon Jones and the Big Bones!”
“Again?”
He nods enthusiastically, his smile widening. His chocolate eyes sparkle, and he gets that dimple in his right cheek, and I falter, my heart giving a little flutter as it skips a beat. He looks so much like Lev. He didn’t at first. When he was born, his eyes were a deep blue, and he didn’t look like either of us, but I swear every day he’s more and more like his father.
“Alright then. Ready for school, kiddo?”
“Yep.”
I climb out of the front seat, zip my coat against the cold Colorado wind, and open the back door. Josh holds his arms out for me to unstrap him and lift him out. It’s too hard for him to get out of the buckles of the car seat just yet.
I slip my hands under his pudgy arms. The puffy coat makes him look like the Michelin Man.
Lifting him out, I give him a little squeeze, then set him on the ground and grab his Minions backpack, which is empty but for his lunch. I unzip it, slip his book inside, close the door, and take his small hand in mine. He’ll need new gloves for winter too. His little fingers are already cold.
“We’ll go get some gloves after school too.”
“After the library?”
“After the library,” I say as we walk to the front entrance of the school.
A whisper on the wind has me turning toward the woods that border the back of the property. Dense pines make it impossible for light to penetrate, and for a moment, I think I see movement.
It’s been like this for the past few weeks. I’ve felt it like I did before, that raising of the hairs on the back of my neck. That slight scent that I don’t know if I imagine or if it just happens to be someone else wearing the same aftershave Lev wore. I don’t even know how I still remember that detail and wish I could forget.
“Miss Katie!” a little girl calls out, making me jump.
I turn away from the woods.
I’m just on edge because of the anniversary. Because today is the day Nina and her family were killed. Well, tonight is. It’s the night I found out I was pregnant with Lev’s baby. The night I’d gone to her house for help when she slipped that flash drive into my hand and made me leave, made me promise not to come back until she called me.
She never did call.
The house burned down that night, and three charred bodies were found inside. Foul play. Arson. Bullets.
“What do you say, Katie?”
I give a shake of my head. Katie. Sometimes I forget to answer to it.
“I’m sorry?” I ask.
“Why don’t you and Josh come over for dinner next week on Friday? It’s Emma’s half-birthday, and we’re getting a cake,” Emma’s dad, Luke Foreman, says. He’s a nice guy. In his mid-forties, he lost his wife early to cancer.
“Can we, Mommy?” Josh asks. He tugs on my hand, and I lean down. He raises his eyebrows and leans in close. “There’s cake,” he whispers loudly.
Luke smiles and winks at me when I straighten. “Sounds great,” I say, although I need to be careful not to give Luke the wrong idea. He asked me out to dinner a while back, and I told him it was against school policy to date a parent, which wasn’t a lie, but it wasn’t the only reason. After everything that happened, I haven’t really been interested in anyone. Just keeping myself and Josh safe is my priority because I’m not sure if Lev or the men he works with have found out that I was there that night. That I have the flash drive they were looking for. That I know they killed Nina’s family.
But I’m not taking any chances. I can’t because it’s not just my life at stake now. I won’t let anything happen to my baby and that includes losing me. Because I know what happens when you’re alone in the world. I know the monsters that prey on those weaker than them, and I will not allow monsters into Josh’s life.
And besides, I’m not interested in Luke as anything more than a friend. Since Lev, I haven’t been interested in anyone.
Another gust of wind has me clutching Josh’s hand tighter.
“They’re saying it’s going to be an early blizzard,” Luke says.
“I hope not.” The first bell rings. “We’d better get inside.”
The morning passes as usual, and although I’d normally spend my lunch hour with Josh, today, I put on my coat and hat and head out to the parking lot.
They’re predicting a foot of snow already, and a glance up at the darkening sky confirms it. Josh and I have lived here for a little over three years, and although I love the snow, I hate driving in it and hope it won’t be as bad as they’re forecasting.
Getting into the Jeep, I glance at the space in the woods that had caught my attention earlier, but nothing’s there now. And it doesn’t look as dark and foreboding as it had early this morning.
Pulling out of the parking lot, I head to the florist in town to pick up the bouquet. It’s ready for me, and I’m grateful for that. I won’t have much time before I have to get back to the school even though the lead teacher in my room knows I may be a few minutes late.
I set the flowers on the passenger’s seat and drive out of town. The elegant, long white callas look out of place on the worn upholstery of the Jeep.
Light flurries have already begun to fall as I navigate the curving road up to Daniel’s Point. I found the overlook by accident. It’s not easy to get to, which means I don’t often run into anyone out there, but today, I’m anxious as the road rises in elevation and visibility becomes an issue.
Switching on the radio for company, I listen absently to songs periodically broken by static until, twenty minutes later, I reach the turnoff for the overlook.
Tires grate on loose stones as I park the Jeep as close to the point as I can. I pull my knit cap on, pick up the flowers, and climb out, my boots crunching on those same stones. I walk around the barrier and onto the barely recognizable trail, and for a moment, the only sound is that of my boots on a random branch or dried up leaf.
There’s a stillness here. Where Josh and I live is quiet too, but here, it’s different than Philadelphia. It’s like the mountains eat sound, and when I stop to listen to it, to hear it, it has a way of reassuring me and filling me with peace. It’s the strangest thing, but when I get to the overlook, and it’s like the world opens up to me, I just stand there and listen to that sound. A part of me wishes it could stay here forever and never go back.
